h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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Just as many modern wood stoves have two combustion zones, one within the wood, and one above it, why not design a charcoal grill that does the same thing?
The grill would look much like a regular one, except above the charcoal, and below the cooking grates, there'd be an air distributer. This would
look a lot like the burner of a gas grill, except it would provide air.
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My grill does have 2 combustion zones: one in the hot coals, and one on the cooking grate where meaty bits are immolated in a fury of smoke and sputtering fat. |
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But this invention: does it cook the food on hot air? Would this be in effect like a smoker, where convection heat from the combustion chamber is the only means for cooking? |
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When you grill over coals, fat from the meat melts, drips onto the coals, burns (or smolders), and creates smoke. This adds a smoky flavor to the meat. (Gas grills do the same thing with artificial “coals.”) Without this, there is hardly any point to cooking over coals; you might as well cook indoors on a stove. |
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It’s not clear to me whether your design would provide for this. |
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I think the best comparison would be with a gasifier stove or gasifier furnace -- these devices first burn wood in an air-restricted environment, producing lots of carbon monoxide, then mix more air into that CO containing gas, which produces a second combustion zone, turning all the carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide, burning all the creosote, and producing more heat per unit of fuel than an open fire. |
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All charcoal fires produce carbon monoxide, therefore we *ought* to be able to add air, and burn that carbon monoxide and produce extra heat. This would allow us to use less fuel for the same amount of cooking. |
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I don't think it would be like a smoker -- there'd be a charcoal grate below, with glowing red coals (giving off radiant heat and carbon monoxide) on it, an air manifold in the middle (with flames occurring where the air mixes with the gas from the charcoal), and a food grate on top. The food would be heated by the infrared radiation of the charcoal, plus the infrared radiation of the flames around the air manifold, and convection (with heat supplied both by the partial combustion in the charcoal, plus the added combustion of carbon monoxide and extra air). |
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As for the smoky flavor... I'm not entirely sure, but I suspect that the smoke would get burnt off before reaching the food. |
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/ All charcoal fires produce carbon monoxide /
Is this true even in a blast furnace or is this an artifact of how charcoal fires are usually set up? |
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This isn't about blowing air onto (through) a charcoal fire -- it's about adding air *above* the charcoal fire, before the waste gasses reach the food. |
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